The demand by Karen Learn’s lawyer for an investigation into Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox places a harsh highlight on Cox’s weak management, together with a scarcity of transparency and urgency.
When he was appointed by Mayor Michelle Wu in 2022, Cox vowed to enhance the connection between police and the general public and restore transparency, however his report falls far in need of that promise.
Cox as a substitute has develop into a legal responsibility for Wu, regardless of her glowing remarks when she appointed him.
“We now have to earn (the general public’s) belief, and so we’re going to go about doing that,” Cox mentioned after he was sworn in.
“I ask everybody who loves this metropolis to please take part serving to transfer the Boston Police Division ahead,” he mentioned. “Give us suggestions on how we could be higher, and work with us as we attempt to… face the challenges that town has, and really serve you the best way it’s good to be served.”
However how can he try this when he’s a part of the least clear administration in metropolis historical past, stifling public data requests and refusing to confess town has a criminal offense downside?
Cox has turned out to be largely a figurehead puppet for the Democratic mayor, following the identical Wu blueprint for ignoring severe crime whereas spewing the identical politically-motivated fantasy that Boston is the “most secure main metropolis” within the nation.
Learn’s lawyer, Alan Jackson, despatched a scathing letter this week to Wu slamming Cox for being “caught in a lie” about what he allegedly instructed Learn case witness Kelly Dever, a former Boston cop.
Jackson was referring to feedback Cox made again in July when he mentioned he didn’t even know Dever was related to the Learn case.
“I’ve nothing to do with Karen Learn,” Cox mentioned.
“For the Commissioner to recommend that he had ‘nothing to do with that case’ defies each logic and management,” Jackson wrote.
Jackson additionally referred to as for a direct disciplinary investigation into Cox by the Massachusetts Peace Officer Requirements and Coaching (POST) Fee.
“This isn’t a political concern. It’s a query of credibility and public belief,” Jackson wrote in a letter to the fee. “When Boston’s prime law-enforcement officer lies about his personal information of a case underneath federal scrutiny, the stain spreads throughout your entire system. Accountability can’t cease on the Commissioner’s door.”
Cox is underneath hearth not only for the Learn case however for his failure to take motion towards law enforcement officials accused by the general public of misconduct.
A latest investigation by WBUR discovered Cox recurrently rejects even modest disciplinary suggestions by the Workplace of Police Accountability and Transparency.
“The (metropolis) ordinance says that we make suggestions to the police commissioner,” mentioned one among OPAT’s civilian board members, Joshua Dankoff. “I believe it’s not throughout the spirit of the ordinance, or the intention of it, to then have these suggestions not be responded to in any respect.”
The Civilian Evaluation Board for OPAT despatched a letter to Cox this month criticizing him for ignoring their suggestions. WBUR discovered Cox didn’t reply to the board in eight circumstances.
“Boston can’t transfer ahead with a police accountability system that’s ignored by police management and staff,” the board wrote.
Wu’s workplace didn’t reply to the letter or questions on whether or not she would ask Cox to make adjustments, as a substitute resorting to the administration’s frequent characterization of Boston as “the most secure main metropolis within the nation.”
This regardless of latest violence within the metropolis and assaults on police which included a “avenue takeover” within the South Finish, the place a police cruiser was torched by fireworks and a number of other officers attacked with poles and cones, and a pro-Hamas demonstration the place protesters injured a number of officers.
Cox and Wu vowed to get powerful with the road takeovers, but solely two arrests had been made, each of them youngsters from Rhode Island. They had been each launched on minor bail quantities.
That’s getting powerful?
Cox earlier this yr additionally confronted questions in regards to the police division’s refusal to reply to detainer requests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Cox claimed town solely bought 15 civil detainer requests from ICE, however the federal company challenged that declare saying the feds lodged 198 requests in 2024, none of which had been honored.
Boston Police blamed the discrepancy on the truth that detainer requests are despatched by fax as a substitute of electronic mail.
